T65 expat

[somarco]

I emailed him after you provided the links. Thanks again for the help

Explained the impact of enrolling now vs when he is ready to return.

No problem. I'm in the process of re-vamping my website and this gave me an idea for a blog topic or two now.

1) What to do about enrolling in Medicare if you plan on living abroad
2) Late Enrollment Penalties for Medicare Parts A, B and D

Every once in a while I drop in on some of the "generic" Medicare consumer sites and offer my take on their questions or comments.

After much back and forth on delayed enrollment and LEP the admin chimed in and said the OP should enroll @65 to avoid a LIFETIME penalty for A, B and D.

I pointed out there is no LEP for A, the one for B is not lifetime but tracks the number of months you failed to enroll in B. The only lifetime penalty is for D.

That stopped the discussion for that thread.

 

[LostDollar]

Although calculated differently, I thought the Part B and Part D penalties were applied the same, ie for the rest of one's life (as long as one carries Part B or Part D).

edit---
There does appear to be a part A LEP that could run less than lifetime.
end edit ---

 

[sam816]

I have met a couple who lived abroad for over 10 years then moved back to US (did not pay for part B while abroad), I thought they would have to pay LEP for parts B and D, turned out they did not have to pay any of that. They qualify for LIS, which I think helped remove the LEP for part D, but don't know how he got away with LEP for part B.

 

[goillini52]

Although calculated differently, I thought the Part B and Part D penalties were applied the same, ie for the rest of one's life (as long as one carries Part B or Part D).

edit---
There does appear to be a part A LEP that could run less than lifetime.
end edit ---

There is a LEP for Part A. If you don't qualify for premium - free Part A and you don't take it when you're 1st eligible, your premium goes up 10% and you have to pay it for twice the # of years you could have had it, but didn't. If you didn't sign up for 2 years after being eligible, you'd pay the extra 10% for 4 years.

Part B is a 10% penalty for each full 12 month period you could have had it, but didn't. This is a lifetime penalty.

Part D is a 1% penalty (of the national average Part D premium) for each month you could have had it, but didn't. This is a lifetime penalty.

 

[somarco]

There is a LEP for Part A. If you don't qualify for premium - free Part A and you don't take it when you're 1st eligible,

Thanks. I did not know that. Haven't encountered someone that had to PAY for Part A.

Part B is a 10% penalty for each full 12 month period you could have had it, but didn't. This is a lifetime penalty.

I thought you only had to pay it for the number of years you did not have B. If you waited 24 months you paid the penalty for 24 months only.

 

[LostDollar]

The part B penalty is an interesting animal.

It runs on full 12 month periods, so there have been threads here where someone is late on Part B and Part D enrollments and pick up a penalty on Part D but not on Part B because of the difference in computation methods.

It is also possible for Part B penalty time to keep accruing after the date a person completes their Part B enrollment paperwork.

 

[goillini52]

Thanks. I did not know that. Haven't encountered someone that had to PAY for Part A.



I thought you only had to pay it for the number of years you did not have B. If you waited 24 months you paid the penalty for 24 months only.

I haven't had anyone that's had to pay for Part A either. It's up to $437 a month with no penalty. Ouch!!

Part B, like Part D is a lifetime penalty.

 

[goillini52]

The part B penalty is an interesting animal.

It runs on full 12 month periods, so there have been threads here where someone is late on Part B and Part D enrollments and pick up a penalty on Part D but not on Part B because of the difference in computation methods.

It is also possible for Part B penalty time to keep accruing after the date a person completes their Part B enrollment paperwork.

If you became eligible for Part B on 03/01/2019 and you took it out effective 01/01/2022, you would pay an extra 20% for Part B for as long as you have Part B. The penalty is based on FULL 12 month periods that you could've had it, but didn't.

 

[LostDollar]

If you became eligible for Part B on 03/01/2019 and you took it out effective 01/01/2022, you would pay an extra 20% for Part B for as long as you have Part B. The penalty is based on FULL 12 month periods that you could've had it, but didn't.

But in the situation you describe, is a 01/01/2022 Part B effective date possible? Wouldn't they have to do a GEP enrollment?

 

[goillini52]

But in the situation you describe, is a 01/01/2022 Part B effective date possible? Wouldn't they have to do a GEP enrollment?

Yes, I thought about the probable 07/01/2022 effective date after I posted. To keep the calculation simple...I just left it like it was. I thought you'd probably catch that LD.